Yale Coach Savoring Sweep Of Ivy Powers

Yale basketball coach James Jones is still reveling in the aftermath of victories over Pennsylvania and Princeton, a weekend sweep that lifted the Bulldogs into first place in the Ivy League.

The last time Yale beat the league's perennial powerhouses in back-to-back games was in the 1987-88 season. Princeton has won 23 Ivy titles, Penn 20.

``That's as good a weekend as we've ever had. Everybody's excited and real happy,'' said Jones, in his third season as Yale coach. ``On Saturday [60-50 win over Princeton], there was not a better college atmosphere in the country. Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium is special, but our place was out of control.''

Princeton came into the game unbeaten (5-0) in the Ivy League.

The capacity of the John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven is 3,100, but Jones said the crowd Saturday was closer to 4,000.

``The fire marshal might have had a problem with the number of people in there,'' Jones said.

One day after the 83-78 victory over Penn, the crowd was seeing a little history being made. And maybe the best is ahead. Yale (15-7, 7-1), which plays at Cornell on Friday and Columbia on Saturday, is trying to become only the third team besides Penn or Princeton team to win the Ivy title since 1970. Cornell did it in 1988 and Brown in '86. Since 1970, Penn has won 17 titles and Princeton 13. And they shared the1981 championship.

``These kids have given me a lot of confidence,'' Jones said. ``There's nobody [in the Ivy League] that has that much better of a talent level. As long as we have equal talent, I think I can do a good enough coaching job and our kids can work hard enough so we can be in a game and have a chance to win.''